From creation of a new way to make movies to record-setting diamond sales, Orange County business people made news this year while

From creation of a new way to make movies to record-setting diamond sales, Orange County business people made news this year while changing the way their industries work.

Here are 14 leaders who made significant contributions to the Orange County business landscape in 2012.

Jim Jannard

Red Digital Cinema, Irvine

Bio: Founder of Irvine-based Red Digital Cinema, a pioneer in filmless movie cameras at ultra high resolutions that push the limits of imaging technology. He previously founded Oakley sunglasses.

What's news: Jannard's company continues to shift Hollywood in the direction of digital movie-making, fundamentally changing the way movies are made and experienced.

“The Hobbit” showed off Red's innovations. It's the first movie to be shown in 3-D theaters with double the frame rate of film, or 48 frames per second. To create the prequel to the “Lord of the Rings” trilogy, producer Peter Jackson used 60 of Red's high-end Epic cameras. For movie goers, the extra frames made epic battle scenes ultra vivid.

The debut of “The Hobbit” was a milestone for Red, a company with about 400 employees that sold its first ultra high-definition camera in 2007. Red cameras also have been used for other movies, including “The Great Gatsby” and “Oz: The Great and Powerful,” “The Amazing Spider-Man,” “Prometheus,” “Flight,” “Magic Mike,” “The Muppets” and “The Social Network.”

Quote: “Only one in 25 will have the opportunity to see The Hobbit at 48 (frames per second). Too bad,” Jannard says at a Red online forum. “It is a new viewing experience; 24 of 25 of you will see it at 24fps. (yawn) Don't get me wrong … it looks incredible at 24fps. But you are missing the point.”

What's Next: Red is developing a “4K” projector for $10,000 and up that can pair with the recently launched Red Ray Player to play content at resolutions far better than today's best consumer televisions.

Mary Niven

Disneyland Resort, Anaheim

Bio: Vice president of Disney California Adventure and guest services for Disneyland Resort. Niven led the five-year, $1 billion effort to create Cars Land, a 12-acre theme area at California Adventure that opened in June. Cars Land has proved to be a hit, enabling Disney to set record attendance figures over the summer.

What's news: Disney's ambitious expansion made it Orange County's largest employer in 2012 with 25,000 people now on its payroll. Disneyland Resort surpassed UC Irvine (21,676 employees) by adding 5,000 workers for its $1 billion California Adventure makeover. The hiring spree represents one of the biggest in the county's history.

Niven, who was named one of the year's top 25 hottest people in Orange County by OC Metro Magazine, is a UCLA graduate who first made her mark in food and beverage for Disney. She became nationally recognized for developing and successfully implementing the first “marketplace” food concept in university residential dining in the United States.

Quote: “After a record-setting 2012, the coming year is an important one for the entire Disneyland Resort. With the Disney California Adventure expansion fully operational and thousands of new cast members onboard, we're quickly identifying new opportunities and experiences to further immerse our guests in the classic Disney stories they love.”

What's Next: Niven hopes to continue to expand tourism – a major element of the county's economy – both at California Adventure and at the original Disneyland.

What's news: Setting records isn't easy in the high-stakes world of diamonds, but Molina made international headlines in November by selling the 76-carat Archduke Joseph – a walnut-sized diamond once owned by the Archduke Joseph August of Austria – for $21.5 million. The price was the most ever paid at auction for a colorless diamond and also eclipsed a record, set previously by the 33-carat Elizabeth Taylor diamond, by fetching $282,500 per carat.

Molina, 53, estimates that $1 million was spent marketing the internally flawless Archduke Joseph, unearthed in the famous Golconda region of India. Although the buyer's name was not released, Molina says she is a queen who intends to exhibit the gem in a museum.

Selling the diamond brought Molina a measure of instant fame, but he says he is on a broader mission to rebuild Black, Starr & Frost, which was founded in 1810. The prestigious jewelry chain once had 35 stores during its heyday, when it ranked with Tiffany and Cartier and was celebrated in the lyrics of “Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend,” sung by Marilyn Monroe.

Quote: “Be cautious about how you treat the man on the street. That could be you someday. I treat the busboys with the same respect that I treat the millionaires.”

What's Next: Only two Black, Starr & Frost locations exist – in Newport Beach and New York City – but Molina plans to re-enter old markets such as Washington, D.C., Dallas and Palm Beach, Fla., with at least three new stores opening within three years.

Brian Fargo

inXile Entertainment, Newport Beach

Bio: Creator of video games for more than three decades, Fargo became known for games such as the “Bard's Tale,” “Wasteland” and “Fallout.” He formed his most recent company, inXile Entertainment, in 2002.

What's news: In April, Fargo raised $2.9 million on the Kickstarter website to make “Wasteland 2,” a sequel to a game that shipped in the late '80s. He was the first Orange County entrepreneur to raise that much from fans on the crowd-funding site, and his example helped other local startups to follow suit.

Fargo used humor to reach fans and offered a complex reward plan – including allowing donors to become part of the game – to boost his fundraising for “Wasteland 2” far beyond the initial $900,000 goal. Fargo's $2.9 million haul for “Wasteland 2” put it among the highest-earning projects in Kickstarter's history.

Quote: “We now need to show that a quality game can come from this new business model both for ourselves and for the next round of developers who wish to use similar financing methods.”

What's Next: Fargo's “Wasteland 2” is slated to be finished in October.

Richard Sudek

Chapman University Leatherby Center for Entrepreneurship & Business Ethics, Orange

What's news: Sudek is spearheading development of Orange County's ecosystem for entrepreneurship and innovation. In February, Chapman opened eVillage to help entrepreneurs and startup companies. The facility also houses the K5 accelerator, which aims to launch 1,000 companies in five years. Sudek also introduced the Entrepreneur of the Year award to honor local innovators, and launched the “Napkin to Revenue and Beyond” seminar series.

He has expanded the campus business plan competition into a super competition called California Dreamin' with teams from 19 universities nationwide competing for $100,000 prize in the first event in April.

For years, Orange County business leaders have talked about the need to build a favorable environment for the next generation of innovative companies. Sudek has charged ahead in this endeavor since his appointment as director of the Leatherby Center in 2011. His vision is to connect the university with major business groups. Under his direction, the campus hosted a local edition of the national Startup Weekend to direct the launch new businesses in 48 hours; and the Tech Coast Venture Network's Survivor competition to encourage new ventures.

Quote: “It's my responsibility to help connect … Orange County's entrepreneurial community, to find entrepreneurs, inventors and investors who want to work together.”

What's Next: The Leatherby Center will honor Arbonne International CEO Kay Napier as entrepreneur of the year in February and expand the California Dreamin' business plan competition in April to $215,000 in prize money or equity investment.

Paul Motenko and Jerry Hennessy

Stacked

Bio: Co-founders of Newport Beach-based Stacked who previously built Huntington Beach's BJ's Restaurants into a national brand.

What's news: The award-winning Stacked concept debuted in 2011 and uses tableside iPads at three Southern California locations. Customers use the tablets to control their dining experience. Diners decide everything from the delivery of the first drink to choice of burger toppings to timing of the check. Servers are available to help diners choose from a menu of comfort foods – burgers, pizzas, salads and shakes.

At a national conference in May, the National Restaurant Association honored Stacked for pioneering what is being touted as the industry's first successful iPad ordering system. Though the technology is still in its infancy, the partners say Stacked is setting the bar for the future.

Quote: “The wave is starting to follow us,” Motenko said of copycat systems. “It's nice to be the first, and by far, the best.”

What's Next: Stacked expects to grow to 50 locations in the next five years.

What's news: In December, the UCLA Anderson School of Management named Pyott as the winner of its IS Associates Executive Leadership Award. He was recognized for leading Allergan, while working with his team “to implement significant technology advances throughout his organization,” said Rob Devers, chairman of UCLA Anderson IS Associates.

Pyott joined Allergan in 1998, streamlined operations to reinvest savings into research and development. Four years later, he spun off Allergan's ophthalmic surgical device and contact lens care businesses into Advanced Medical Optics.

Under Pyott's leadership, Allergan continued to grow in 2012, opening a research and development facility in New Jersey, and acquiring SkinMedica, a company that sells skin-care products that are dispensed by doctors.

Quote: “Hard times often are great times to get creative, right?” Pyott says in an interview with the California Healthcare Institute blog. “Because you sit there and go, ‘This isn't enough, we've got to find something new.' ”

What's Next: Pyott will take over as chairman of the board at California Healthcare Institute, a nonprofit biomedical public policy research organization.

Charles Ahlers

Anaheim/Orange County Visitor & Convention Bureau

Bio: Served 40 years in the convention business, including two stints in Anaheim, the latest began in 1992 as president of the visitor and convention bureau.

What's news: The convention business has been in a space race for more than 30 years as cities tried to outdo each other with bigger, better facilities to attract new business. Ahlers, 67, has been one of the key leaders who helped Orange County tourism keep up with the competition.

After arriving in 1992, Ahlers helped oversee the makeover that became the Anaheim Resort District. He was also responsible for two expansions of the Convention Center including a $177 million, 600,000-square-foot addition in 2000 that included the facility's distinctive glass facade. In January, the Convention Center will unveil its latest project, the Grand Plaza, a $20 million, 100,000-square-foot outdoor space redesigned for outdoor events and social functions.

Quote: “People who last visited in 2000 don't even realize the renovation.”

What's next: Ahlers retires this month from the convention bureau, but will continue to keep his hand in as an industry consultant.

Julie Miller-Phipps

Kaiser Permanente Orange County

Bio: Senior vice president and executive director of Kaiser Permanente, which provides health care for 459,680 Orange County residents; and chairwoman of the board of directors of the Orange County Business Council

What's news: Under Miller-Phipps' leadership, Kaiser Permanente opened a state-of-the-art 434,000-square-foot hospital in Anaheim in September. The Anaheim Medical Center campus, which includes two medical office buildings and the 262-bed medical center, cost $670 million. The complex is designed with patients in mind, from a lobby that looks more like a hotel than a hospital to the three-acre healing garden.

As chief executive for Kaiser Permanente's Orange County hospital and health plan operations, Miller-Phipps oversees an annual operating budget of more than $949 million, 6,300 employees and 960 physicians.

Quote: “We are very humbled to have earned the trust of so many Orange County residents with their health needs. Our new medical center beautifully displays the true mission of Kaiser Permanente for the past 65 years, which is to provide affordable, high-quality health care services, which improves the health of our members and the communities we serve.”

What's next: Kaiser Permanente will open its 23rd medical office building in Foothill Ranch in February. Plans are being finalized for another medical office building in Tustin Ranch to open either in late 2013 or early 2014. Construction begins on a state-of-the-art radiation and oncology building on the Anaheim Medical Center campus in late 2013.

Reza and Maryam Rofougaran

Broadcom, Irvine

Bio: Reza Rofougaran is Broadcom's chief technologist and sister Maryam Rofougaran is a vice president of RF engineering. The siblings work as a team on wireless technology at one of Orange County's leading tech firms.

What's news: The Rofougarans are prolific inventors who have more than 500 patents between them for various wireless chip technologies. Their big idea: figuring out how to put Wi-Fi and Bluetooth on an efficient, affordable computer chip.

In the most recent quarter, Broadcom's wireless chips contributed $1 billion to the company's total sales and now accounts for roughly half of Broadcom's revenue. Broadcom's wireless chips are inside popular gadgets such as the iPhone 5 and the Wii U.

Quote: “We can't do everything at the same time,” Reza Rofougaran said. “I want to do it all at the same time.”

“And so do I,” Maryam Rofougaran said. “We've got to make sure we can deliver a product.”

What's next: The next chip from the Rofougarans arrives in gadgets in 2013 and rolls together four technologies onto a single chip. Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and FM will join “NFC,” or near-field communications, together on one piece of tiny silicon. With an NFC-capable phone, you could tap to pay for something at the register, swipe in front of a pad to unlock a door or bump two phones together to share a photo.

Scott Burnham

Burnham USA

Bio: CEO of the Newport Beach-based commercial real estate development company, with numerous holdings throughout Orange County, including the South Coast Home Furnishings Center in Costa Mesa.

What's news:Burnham USA acquired the large, underperforming, 300,000-square-foot South Coast Home Furnishings Center, then oversaw its renovation and rebranding. The center has been renamed South Coast Collection – SOCO for short – and has nabbed several O.C. exclusives, including showrooms for Design Within Reach, Rolling Greens and Surfas Culinary District.

SOCO features many tenants that are style-oriented and has become a shopping and dining destination. Several showrooms are retail and wholesale hybrids; they are open to consumers as well as to interior designers, contractors, architects and other business owners. The center also is home to OC Mart Mix, a coterie of artisanal shops and eateries.

Quote:“Probably our biggest hurdle has been convincing would-be tenants that have not yet visited SOCO that it has been entirely reinvented and is not at all what it once was. This, of course, can be easily accomplished through a simple visit to the property.”

What's next:High-end outdoor furnishings manufacturer Brown Jordan is scheduled to open an 11,800-square-foot showroom at SOCO next year.

What's news: Keller's growing group of refurbished restaurants and hotels gained momentum and new focus during the economic downturn. Keller, for example, changed La Casa del Camino's downstairs restaurant into a more casual eatery offering small plates. Under the revamped name K'ya Bistro Bar, business gained steam again, drawing customers to a more affordable menu.

In November, former Laguna Mayor and Councilman Kelly Boyd hand-picked Keller to take over the Marine Room Tavern, a well-known city watering hole dubbed “the West Coast Cheers.”

Quote: “The game is never over in this business. There's always someone right around the corner that is going to do something better.”

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